Awwww! It's so cute the first time one of the children says that!
hey man, we all gotta start somewhere. I've gotten great advice and suggestions here. there aren't a whole lot of places left any more where you can listen to good speakers in action.
almost 20 years ago when I was into car audio I had a friend who was into high end home audio. we took a drive to a high end shop and I got to listen to some really nice stuff. they had maggies and some ridiculously priced amps/preamps driving them along with a whole other bunch of similar expensive, esoteric brands that you'd need a second mortgage to afford. they also had a preowned section which is where I got my old b&w's.
my uncle worked for dr alan hill, the president of
plasmatronics (my uncle was the vice president) in new mexico who invented plasma speakers, a massless driver design, which were a trip. you could blow out the plasma stream and the sound would stop until it "reignited". I got to listen to and play around with some of the early versions. fascinating design and sounded amazing, but were pretty impractical. i dunno if they ever really took off.
anyway, I have dipped my toes into the high end audio world, but my experiences are 20 to almost 30 years ago and there have been some advances since then. I do know enough that my budget won't allow true high end audio, but I might be able to swing around a grand or so for some mains with a little saving. like I said, I don't have a lot of options for auditioning much which is why I'm here asking questions and have gotten some great replies.
I don't have the funds yet, but I think I'm between the svs ultras or the philharmonitors at this point. the philharmonitors spec very nicely and the folks here rave about dennis' work. the ultras are a little less and I have some experience with svs subs and love them. plus gene and hugo really seemed to like them.
